Ghosts of Altaica
by FuzyDr4G0NZ
Summary: Marooned on an alien world and haunted by the dead civilisation that once inhabited it, the crew of the Beautiful Expanse try and find out what happened to the people on the planet, all the while they're being hunted by the shadows. *AU* (Chapter 1 is redone)


**AN: So a major edit to chapter one (no chapter two yet), with a whole tonne of help from Primordial Soul. Seriously he wrote the first part of the edit, i made a couple of small tweaks but the first part is all him. a big thank you to Primordial Soul for advice on how to write a better suspense story and for the first part of this which he wrote as a demonstration for me. **

**I don't own Mass Effect- it belongs to Bioware and EA games.**

* * *

Garrus slowly walked through the underbrush and debris, taloned hands tightening around the rifle he carried. His visor tagged and catalogued everything he saw; keeping him aware of the things he could not see. His hand brushed away some of the underbrush, having over grown the ruins of the ancient cement and mortar buildings that crumbled around them.

_What could have happened to such a paradise?_ He idly wondered as he paused in his hike, looking over a vista that displayed an amazing view of the valley below. The sun was setting in the horizon, a bloody red that reminded Garrus of the dried patches of something he saw along the way. Something that looked disturbingly like dried blood...

His hands tightened around his gun; his armour strangely uncomfortable to his armoured carapace. Despite the tranquillity, despite the paradise like nature of this place, something ... felt wrong. Garrus' gut was clenching in anxiety, his heart was hammering in his chest and his eyes were dilated.

Why was he feeling this way? Garrus thought, slowly turning around to face the forest around him. It was like the stories back home, when the spirits of the dead refused to move on and haunted the grounds upon they were killed.

Yes, that was exactly what it felt like. A requiem of countless souls. He could imagine the ghosts of the dead clawing at his mind, gnawing at his soul, demanding a release from their cursed nature. His heart pumped even quicker and Garrus stepped back as if...

His Omni-tool chimed, alerting the wary turian to an incoming call. Without moving his eyes from the bloodshot sun, he accepted the call and replied, "Who is it?"

_"Garrus, its Liara. We've finished the head count on the survivors of the crash. Only seventeen of us made it."_

"Spirits" Garrus breathed, shocked at the number of casualties they had received. "Is the Captain on her feet?"

_"She's awake, but she can't move due to a broken leg she got from a falling support beam. She's ordered that everyone return to the crash site to hold out for rescue."_

Garrus scoffed. "We're in the heart of the Terminus Systems in the spur's end of nowhere. We're not getting rescued for a while."

_"That is an unfortunate truth"_ Liara admitted. _"But either way, we're going to have to stay ..."_

"No, Liara, you don't understand." Garrus urged. "We need to leave now. There is something evil here, living on this planet. I can feel the danger in my gizzard. We need to leave now."

_"That's impossible Garrus and you know it. Besides, we're going to be..."_

The snapping of a branch instantly alerted Garrus to visitors, adrenaline rushing through his veins. His rifle was instantly up and aimed behind him, his back now towards the setting sun, which by now casted the sky a pinkish red.

"Hold on, Liara. I'm not alone out here." Another twig snaps and Garrus aimed forty degrees to his left.

_"That's impossible, Garrus. There were no life signs on the planet. You're just hallucinating..."_

Garrus ignored the asari and inched his way to a large rock, where he had heard yet another snapping twig. His right hand tightened on the trigger, his left hand using his Omni tool as a flash light. The forest of crumbling skyscrapers was dark now, so suffocated by the darkness that it was impossible to see very far without the flash light.

Whoosh! Movement to Garrus' right had him spinning to the right, firing a quick burst from his Phaeston assault rifle. His rounds hit nothing and silence permeated through the forest again.

Spirits, he was right! Garrus inwardly panicked. He was being hunted by the spirits of the deceased, hungry for any life they could encounter and harvest along the way.

Garrus heard more movement to his left and fired another burst. Nothing.

His fringe raised in agitation, a symbol to the fear he was experiencing. Never before had he experienced such a situation. Turians had a natural fear of the dark, brought about by the endless sun and radiation they had received on their home planet. And to Garrus, that was all he could feel right now.

Primal terror.

His back was against a tree that had sprouted out of the ground in the middle of an old, cracked road, hands trembling in fear. His legs felt weak against the forces of gravity and his discipline was fraying as he thought. Oh Spirits, oh Spirits, oh Spirits...

_"Garrus?"_

Garrus screamed and turned around, behind him, firing at anything that moved behind him. Several seconds of sustained fire turned the square meter behind Garrus in a raining hail of bullets, death to whoever entered that zone.

His finger continued to mash the trigger even after the clip rang dry, the turian unaware of the lack of ammunition in his gun. Garrus slowly came back to awareness as his mind began piercing the fog of terror, realizing that Liara was the one who spoke.

"Spirits, Liara! Don't do that!" Garrus said, inching backwards. It was okay, it was okay, everything was...

His body hit something soft and fleshy. The turian froze, simple and raw dread and terror flooding his veins. He was paralyzed as hot breath ran along his neck.

He didn't even have time to scream.

* * *

The docks on the Citadel were always teaming with life, there was always a crowd of people wanting to either leave the Citadel or those that were just arriving to try and make it big in the heart of galactic politics and commerce. Today however more people than usual were visiting the docks, the reason being the launching of the _Beautiful Expanse_, the first ship to be allowed to explore through dormant Mass Relay's and explore the unknown. Thousands flocked to the port to watch it as it set sail for destinations unknown. Cameras and Omni-tools flashed as they took pictures of the vessel that would take some of galaxies best and brightest into the furthest reaches of space. Many people wanted to catch a glimpse of the hero's that would make the journey, some of them however came to watch their sons or daughters, husbands or wives leave on their history making trip.

The Captain of the _Beautiful Expanse_, Avalona Sellos, sat with an asari reporter from the CNN, Citadel News Network.

"Captain this is a pleasure, now obviously I have a few questions for you about the ship and its crew, after all what better source is there than the Captain of the vessel?" the reporter said, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

"Of course, I will answer to the best of my abilities but as you know certain details about the _Expanse_ are classified." Avalona replied, smiling for the camera.

"Okay first off, there are reports of two rather unusual crew members, a Krogan and Quarian. Surely these reports are nothing but rumours, I doubt the Council would allow such… _undesirables_ aboard the most advanced ship in the galaxy." The reporter questioned.

"You're right—the Council wouldn't allow 'undesirables' onto the most advanced ship in the galaxy," Avalona rebutted "But Tali and Wrex, the Quarian and Krogan respectively, are both very trust worthy, and my friends. Tali is young, energetic and incredibly smart. Wrex is the type of person we need aboard to protect the crew." Avalona said- protecting her crew members from the discrimination the reporter was trying to put out. The reporter's face flushed a deep purple in embarrassment and quickly moved on.

"Okay, so what do you expect to find on your journey Captain?"

Avalona chuckled slightly before replying, "Personally I expect nothing more than empty star systems and new mining possibilities to be found, and maybe a new race that hasn't even reached a basic industrial stage yet. But the galaxy is full of surprises, maybe we'll get lucky and find a new Prothean data archive or maybe some habitable worlds yet to be settled."

* * *

On the docks crew members were saying their good byes to family and loved ones, one such person was Garrus Vakarian, a Turian whose C-Sec career went down the drain and still became one of the galaxies best Spectre's. He was joined by his sister and mother, his father refused to speak to him after his initiation into the Spectres, Garrus' mother's frail hand held his face as they wished each other well. His sister had wished him luck and had made it apparent she was jealous of him being chosen, she had wished to go and explore uncharted space but someone had to look after their mother whose health was ever getting worse.

On the other side of the docks the young Asari maiden known as Liara T'Soni hugged her mother farewell, Benezia had gotten Liara a place on the _Beautiful Expanse_ and hoped her daughter would come out of her shell a bit more, rather than hide at dig sights for the rest of her life. Liara cried as she hugged her mother who despite being nearly millennia old still cared for her daughter like she was her only daughter, not which was a bad thing.

* * *

Avalona walked through the doors to the CIC and sat down in the Captains seat in the centre and smiled as her crew faced her, all with large grins on their faces. They were about to make history and she wanted to enjoy the moment.

"Docking clamps have disengaged Captain, we are good to go." Her Navigation Officer informed her; she looked over at her and nodded.

"Good, take us out of the docks, nice and slow; give the spectators something to remember." Avalona ordered. She felt the _Expanse_ move out of the docks and watched it all on a display. The _Beautiful Expanse_ slowly glided out of the docks and into open space where a pair of Turian Frigates took up escort positions either side of her.

As the _Beautiful Expanse_ approached the Mass Relay the Frigates peeled off and returned to their stations. The exploration craft came within range of the massive Prothean relic and Avalona took the opportunity to speak.

"Today we set forth in to the unknown, today we will make history and our names will be forever forged into the stars of the galaxy. I am proud to lead you all on this journey, so let us go forth and shine light into the darkness, let us go and change the galaxy!" Avalona said over the ship-wide com system, her bridge crew cheered and she thought she could hear the rest of the ship as well. She sat back down with a large smile on her face, this would be the greatest achievement in her life and nothing would go wrong, nothing _could_ go wrong.

* * *

**I hope that was better than the original chapter I posted. If you've got time to read this than you've got time to leave a review, so please do so. Feedback is important.**


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